Get the latest tech news
A Band-Aid for the heart? New 3D printing method makes this, and much more, possible
A CU Boulder-led team has developed a new way to print ultra-tough, adhesive biomaterials that could be used for cardiac patches, cartilage repair, needle-free sutures and personalized implants.
In the quest to develop life-like materials to replace and repair human body parts, scientists face a formidable challenge: Real tissues are often both strong and stretchable and vary in shape and size. They’ve developed a new way to 3D print material that is at once elastic enough to withstand a heart’s persistent beating, tough enough to endure the crushing load placed on joints, and easily shapable to fit a patient’s unique defects. Burdick imagines a day when such 3D-printed materials could be used to repair defects in hearts, deliver tissue-regenerating drugs directly to organs or cartilage, restrain bulging discs or even stitch people up in the operating room without inflicting tissue damage like a needle and suture can.
Or read this on r/technology
